People come from all the nations
Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain. 18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
20On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD Almighty.
God’s people plundered the Egyptians when they made their exodus from the land of slavery. To the victor belongs the spoils! It was true. The wealth of surrounding nations will be collected. The promise is that God’s people will be sitting on thrones ruling; all things will be theirs. This is a promise from the one who has power to carry it out and whose good pleasure it is to do it.
No rain! What a curse it is to see all things dry up and die and to be helpless to do anything about it. This was the final curse that would and will strike all those who do not worship the true God. Apart from him there is no life.
The Feast of Tabernacles was also known as the Feast of Ingathering. It was a harvest festival established by the Lord in Leviticus chapter 23, beginning with verse 33. At the end of the regulations for that feast we read, “Live in booths for seven days . . . so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt” (verses 42,43). The very people who provided the background for this feast—the Egyptians—were going to be cursed if they did not participate!
Bring the firstfruits to the Lord! That is what the feast required. Curses followed otherwise. The Lord clearly said through the prophet Malachi, “You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house” (3:9,10).
Verses 20 and 21 are the final verses of the book of Zechariah. At first glance they may seem anticlimactic, even disappointing in the apparent importance of their parting thoughts. But consider the wonderful hope they offer. The inscription found on the high priest’s turban, HOLY TO THE LORD, will be inscribed on everything, down to the bells on the horses and the cooking pots! In other words, for believers living in the New Testament era, there is no distinction between sacred and secular. The Lord’s people dedicate all of their resources to the service of God.
Everyone will realize on the great day of the Lord that everything exists only for the Lord. They are there to praise only him forever and to be completely happy in doing this. The First Commandment, which asks us to recognize him as the only reason for our existence and for our praise, will finally be kept perfectly. We will love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds. Every single thought, action, word, and thing will be stamped HOLY TO THE LORD. No one will be foreign to that idea or against it. Finally, in glory there will be no Canaanite in the house, no one outside God’s family, as verse 21 promises.
Yes, this is the grandest of promises and aspirations! This is the way it will be—on that day!